Site of Deer Park

2 A large circular enclosure with internal pits and six straight trackways radiating from the enclosure show on air photographs. This overlies an undated enclosure complex (PRN 315).
3 De Hamel records an area of about 21ha, which was carefully planted and arranged for harborage and furnished with winter sheds. This part of the park or deer drive had a central clump of trees enclosed in an embanked circle 98m across from which radiate 6 arms each 19.7m wide and extending to an outer boundary. One of these avenues faced the deer sheds, another led to the Staffordshire corner, the next to a deer leap 11.8m wide and trenched 3m broad. The fourth faced a second deer leap, the remaining two finished by the brook. The spaces between these avenues were planted with willows, hazel etc, to form cover for the deer.
4 Ref 3 suggests that the park was constructed by Philip Marmion in the 13th century (see PRN 120), but its regularity and survival into the early 20th century suggests a Post Medieval or Imperial date.
5 The circular feature, internal pits (possible remains of the trees shown on early maps), radiating trackways and the underlying enclosure complex were mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage national Mapping Project. Ridge and furrow ploughing is evident in the same field as the deer park but the temporal relationship between the two features is not clear from the aerial photographs.